By Liza Soriano

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has assured that the Senate will pass the proposed 2024 national budget by first week or second week of December.

“Our commitment, to answer your question, we will pass it on time. We will finish it by the first week of December; I would believe it would be ready for the President’s signature, [the] latest [by] second week of December,” Zubiri said during the special joint session of both houses on Saturday.

During the joint session, the House of Representatives transmitted the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) to the upper house.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Romualdez said that it will be the decision of the Senate whether to follow the lead of the lower house in removing the confidential funds of five agencies or not.

“The ball is in our hands, ‘ika nga sa basketball, nando’n na po sa amin,” Zubiri said.

“Unfortunately, hindi na po namin nakasama ‘yong aming chairman ng committee on appropriations today so we’ll act on his behalf, si Senator Angara, he just came back from an overseas mission, but kami po ni Senator Joel Villanueva our Majority Floor Leader, at iba pong mga senador — nandito po si Senator JV Ejercito, and some other senators ay handa po tumanggap po ng final version of the House of Representatives’ 2024 national budget,” the Senate President added.

(ai/mnm)

By Junex Doronio

APPARENTLY WITNESSING THE DIFFICULTIES encountered by senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in voting on the recently-concluded Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE), House Deputy Majority Leader and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo has called for separate voting precincts for them.

The number one “senatoriable” for 2025 made the appeal on Tuesday in a post on Facebook.

“Baka naman sa susunod na eleksyon, mga PWD at seniors sa ibang classrooms na lang bumoto -kawawa kasi sila,” Tulfo said.

Tulfo has consistently topped the surveys for probable winning senatorial bets in 2025.

The former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) garnered 50% support from a total of 1,200 respondents polled between July 17 and 31 by Oculum Research and Analytics.

He topped a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey in April, Tangere in June, and OCTA Research in July.

Tulfo is also touted as the potential running mate of Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez if the latter decides to run for president in 2028.

(ai/mnm)

By Junex Doronio

THIS EARLY, two main protagonists in the 2028 presidential race, five years from now, are making their presence felt with Vice President Sara Duterte’s satisfaction rating in the latest OCTA survey at 70 percent but noticeably decreased by 12 percent while that of Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez increased by six percent and zoomed up to 61 percent.

Conducted from September 30 to October 4, the OCTA survey showed Duterte apparently losing her “magic” across all key geographic regions.

She has a 16-percentage-point drop in the Visayas, and a 12-percentage-point drop in Balance Luzon, and among socioeconomic classes, Duterte got a 22-percentage-point drop among Class E and a 19-percentage-point drop among Class ABC.

Some political observers told Maharlika NuMedia that Duterte’s seeming “free fall” could be attributed to her controversial confidential funds, particularly on how her Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent the “secret monies” in just 11 days in 2022.

Her asking for P650 million total confidential funds for the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) that she heads as Secretary for 2024 but was stripped by the House of Representatives.

Inday Sara — as the Vice President and Education Secretary is fondly called by her supporters — has also remained “mysteriously silent” on the issue of China bullying in the West Philippine Sea that caused an uproar among many Filipinos.

On the other hand, Romualdez showed his proactive leadership when he led the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in raiding the warehouses of rice hoarders and the House of Representatives realignment of confidential funds to the agencies tasked to safeguard the country’s national security and sovereignty.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s satisfaction rating also dropped by six percentage points from the second to the third quarter of 2023, although 65% of Filipinos still remain satisfied with his performance.

(AI/MNM)

By Junex Doronio

A FUMING House Speaker Martin Romualdez has asked the head of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) to resign immediately following the swallowing of a $300 incident involving a female security personnel who allegedly stole the cash from a departing passenger at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Sept 8.

Romualdez said he would personally block the approval of the proposed OTS budget for 2024 if Undersecretary and OTS Administrator Mao Aplasca refuses to quit.

“Mag-resign ka na. Kung hindi ka magsa-submit ng resignation, ako mismo ang magba-block ng approval ng budget ng OTS,” the leader of the 316-member House of Representatives sternly warned.

The House of Representatives is currently holding the final week of the plenary debates on the P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget for 2024.

On Wednesday, September 27, the House is scheduled to tackle in the plenary the proposed budget of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), OTS’ parent agency.

The OTS is the agency responsible for the security of the Philippines’ transportation systems.

On September 8, a female security screening officer was caught on surveillance camera swallowing $300 worth of bills, which she allegedly stole from a shoulder bag of a departing passenger at the NAIA.

“Naka-strike three na ang OTS chief (The OTS has had his third strike). We are already fed up with these reports of stealing and other acts of wrongdoing at the airport, for which OTS officials and their DOTr supervisors are ultimately responsible. A top-to-bottom overhaul is needed,” Romualdez noted.

It was gathered that in February, airport personnel allegedly stole cash from a Thai tourist. In March, another officer was nabbed for stealing a Chinese passenger’s watch.

Romualdez pointed out that it is bad that a tourist would get this kind of treatment, as it would reflect on the whole country. (ai/mnm)